It's bad news for the snarling, angry dog on the corner, but good news for the mailman he terrorizes. Scientists have discovered that bold, aggressive dogs live much shorter lives than shy, obedient pooches, the New York Times reports.

Vincent Careau, of the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada, and his colleagues came to that conclusion by comparing numerous dog breeds based on their personalities. For example, poodles are ranked as 29 percent more docile than boxers, and Careau's team found that poodles are four times more likely than boxers to live past age 10.

Beyond simply looking at aggressiveness, the researchers also found that the most obedient breeds, such as German shepherds, poodles, and bichon frises, live considerably longer than hard-to-train dogs such as beagles and pomeranians, according to New Scientist. Careau used personality data based on a 1995 psychology study that ranked dog personalities, the New York Times reports, and also compared dogs of similar size.

Call it karma, or a mere accident of selective breeding, but for dogs, it seems, it pays to be good.

Uhm... okay then. I guess my dogs are doomed. Absolutely not a smidgen of shyness to be found in either one of them, and obedience is kinda sketchy...